Brajesh Thakur was a prototype presstitute. In a disgusting turn of events, he played a sampler and a pimp to the powerful men of his town as well. He has already been convicted by Saket district court under POCSO Act and sentenced for life. 34 out of 42 girls in Muzaffarpur Shelter Home that he ran were found to be sexually abused and physically tortured. When the matter became public in 2018, collective conscience of the nation had remained shaken for a week. Yet Bhakshak, the film, dare not mention him by name and uses a similar sounding Bansi Sahu as the name of the lead character, played with aplomb by the great Aditya Shrivastav. One can digest this much, but why have they changed even Muzaffarpur into Munawarpur is beyond understanding. One comedian by the name of M.Faruqui might be amused at this sleight of hand, but I’m left appalled at this pusillanimity. Is this the fear of libel, or simply unwillingness to ‘ruffle any feather in the whole-wide world’?

That said, Bhakshak is an important, and a well-made film. Director Pulkit has managed to get the best out of Bhumi Pednekar with perfunctory overdose of superciliousness. She plays a dogged journalist scents a good story and won’t back down, and whose sense of duty and responsibility towards society and her profession outweigh risks and problems. Sanjay Mishra, as a camera man and her partner in crime, is perfectly cast. He lends pragmatic colour to the whole setting, and it is their chemistry that turns her character into a round one. Along with ‘dekh rahe ho Binod’ Durgesh Kumar (Banrakhas of Panchayat series), Sanjay also provides much needed comic relief to intense proceedings. Chittaranjan Tripathy as an opportunistic turncoat also manages to impress, as he almost always does. Sai Tamhankar as the SSP is quite wasted. Aditya Shrivastav, the root of all evil, plays the villain with a confident and pleasant demeanour, but mean and ruthless streak. Why did his character, Bansi Sahu, not attempt to cover his tracks, or go into hiding when faced with eventual arrest and infamy is anyone’s guess. He and his gang do not even try to manage evidence, and as per the film, await their fate like sitting ducks. The film fails to justify this curious turn of resignation, or defiance, or acceptance of fate, or whatever else it was. In fact, this capitulation de-dramatises the journalist’s struggle to unearth the scandal and ensure accountability in shelters to a matter-of-factly reportage.

Doing the right thing does come naturally to most people. Every conscience gets pricked on becoming or being made aware of violence, exploitation and injustice. But there comes a time when an individual has to do a cost-benefit analysis before pushing on with the cause or indulging in a compromise. The character played by Bhumi also faces this classic conundrum. She is physically threatened, but she doesn’t cow down. Her mehmaan (a word repeated needlessly n number of times, perhaps because someone in the director’s squad found it novel or funny) is mercilessly beaten and his legs are broken. She has a simpleton of a husband, who is also a soft target. Nevertheless, she does not back down and keeps making exposes. How does she resolve the conflict in her mind? This conflict resolution should have been done onscreen for the decision to seem credible, but the film fails on this crucial count. This is where the film could have turned educative, but it takes the simple way out by not delving upon the reason for her determination.

And yet the film works, perhaps because most of the supporting actors have also given first rate performances, and the tragedy itself is soul-crunching. The film opens to horrors being perpetrated upon hapless orphan girls, which is disturbing in its simplicity. Suitable BGM accompaniment might have elevated its impact. The final raid on the shelter and the arrest of the antagonists are shot well even as a moving song plays in the background. There is neither thrill, nor suspense, nor even procedural investigation. Social audit of shelters had already been done by TISS, and report prepared. It had been submitted for acceptance by Social Welfare Ministry, but is badly delayed. By their incessant reporting, Bhumi and Sanjay draw attention and create pressure for the acceptance of this audit report.

Basking in the success of her reporting endeavour culminating into the arrest of shelter home personnel, the lead journalist appears on the screen and drops a Ravish Kumar-like monotonous sermon upon the gullible audience where she blames social media for killing off human sensitivities and making people inured to sufferings around them. Her tone is aimed to shame people into conscientious conduct, and exhort them to shun apathy and actively fight prevalent injustice and corruption. But all that his harangue does is that it makes one nostalgic for that great comedy show titled ‘Ravish ki Baat’. Pick any news snippet or piece of writing from the last millennium, and you would find similar ranting by self-appointed conscience-keepers. Dying humanity is neither a myth, nor a new trend, humans since their birth are ever in the process of dying. Laying blame upon media, social media, video reels, modernism, kaliyug, whatsapp university or consumerism hardly makes sense, rather is simplistic blame-game in which petty intellectuals indulge in to attain moral superiority. As they say, the business of morality has the best chance of achieving gargantuan success. Just look at various faiths and religions, whose business is never affected by recessions and downturns. Watch Bhakshak to enjoy good performances, but beyond that this film has limited value or appeal.  

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